REACTING to *Ep. 3 Chernobyl* BRINGING IN THE MINERS!! (First Time Watching) TV Shows

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James and Nobu are reacting to Ep. 3 Chernobyl and the russians are bringings in the miners!! The Soviet Union gets desperate, finding as many personal as is possible to help stop the immediate dangers of this melting nuclear material! Enjoy this first time watching TV Shows reactio to Chernobyl
#firsttimereaction #chernobyl #tvshows #tvshowreaction #sovietunion #chernobyepisode1 #firsttimewatching #moviecommentary #moviereaction
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[@whitenoisereacts]

What is your favorite piece of media based on historical events?

[@martinbraun1211]

The movie "Downfall" from 2004.

[@marshymany5483]

"Mars Attacks"

[@neptunusrex5195]

Idiocracy 😅 Hehe nah probably this or John Woo’s Red Cliff (the full 5 hour two part version). Red Cliff is the lord of the rings of wu xia films 🙇‍♂️ 🥋

[@juliecasson5298]

The Impossible

[@audreylwalker]

All The President’s Men

[@Artfulcas]

Someone is saying: “You have to understand: This is not your husband anymore, not a beloved person, but a radioactive object with a strong density of poison-ing. You are not suicidal. Get ahold of yourself.” And I’m like someone who’s lost her mind: “But I love him! I love him!” He’s sleeping, and I’m whispering: “I love you!” Walking in the hospital courtyard, “I love you.” Carrying his sanitary tray, “I love you.” I remember how we used to live at home. He only fell asleep at night after he’d taken my hand. That was a habit of his- to hold my hand while he slept. All night. So in the hospital I take his hand and I don’t let go. --- Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the widow of firefighter Vasily Ignatenko, Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexeivich (transl. Keith Gessen) 😔

[@neptunusrex5195]

Yeah when this series came out Lyudmilla Ignatenko actually got a LOT of hate mail and received actual death threats against her and her family even because the way the show made it sound like “by touching him she also killed her baby” - which is absolutely NOT what happened. But because the show didn’t explain accurately or specifically enough about how radiation works so unless someone researched it on their own they would assume that she was at fault and blame her. Its really horrible they left out the specifics of what actually happened with her baby and why. The misinformation may have made for more dramatic tv but they really did her dirty by skewing it the way they did. This poor woman had suffered enough 😞😭

[@Artfulcas]

@@neptunusrex5195There are not words for how appalling and horrible that is, I didn’t even know that. I mean for Christ’s sake-- I haven’t read up on any interviews done with her or how accurate the nurse’s warnings to her in the tv series are but even just watching this I can’t see how anyone can think she offed her child knowingly. Yes she is warned it’s dangerous but they make it clear even higher up political party members do not comprehend the damage that radiation poisoning does or how it works. And the nurse tells her it’s not safe but not once does she explain why or how she could be harmed. It can be argued that she should have taken her word for it but-- it was her husband… She loved him, and without a full explanation, I can imagine why ‘It’s not safe.’ Didn’t cut it as a reason to abandon him as a means to keep herself safe. She was told it wasn’t safe, but she had no means of knowing exactly how dangerous it was for her, or for her child. And even then, her interactions with her husband after the explosion were not what killed her baby. SECRETS, and lies, there’s not a single natural force in the world that can do as much damage.

[@fxbear]

I can’t read this without crying. Reading “voices of Chernobyl “ she goes into more depth of her feelings. She honesty thought he was just burned at first. She didn’t really comprehend the danger. I’ve experienced that level of dedication and love and would have done the same.

[@DeathKitta]

I put blame on stupid people who go out of their way to harass others!! It's not one by one documentary! GOD they are stupid and full of venom.

[@a.s.raiyan2003-4]

@@neptunusrex5195 Ret**ded brainless people will always jump at anything without finding out the truth.

[@mckenzie.latham91]

Fact to be noted you cannot pass radiation throigh human contact A person's body can be radioactive but that doesn't mean you will absorb the radiation when/if you touch them This was not well known at the time, so the doctors all thought severe radiation could be passed through people but it can't The main concern for not touching the person is the risk of giving them an infection as radiation posioning kills the immune system.

[@SoulessStranger]

In normal cases of irradiated people aka workers in power plants for example. But with cases like this it is different. If someone has been exposed to an extremely high dose of radiation, such as in a nuclear accident or a critical radiation therapy error, they can become what is known as a "radiation hazard" or a "radiation source" themselves. In such cases, they emit radiation from their body, which can pose a risk to others who come into close contact with them. If the exposure is internal it spreads. You can read more at www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/emergencies/contamination.htm

[@Markus117d]

Correct and wrong at the same time, Correct radiation exposure can't be passed on, But radioactive contamination can, They breathed in radioactive smoke and ash, There will be contamination throughout their body's, It will be in their Sweat, blood and even the breath they exhale. Would you want to be around a leaky container filled with matter contaminated with radionuclide"s? 🤔

[@TheBestPirateDrake]

So apparently in the true event, the divers light really went off. But the they were so familiar with the place that they were confident enough to move in the dark. In the show they brought back the light so that the audience could see what they were doing.

[@neptunusrex5195]

The part about the shoes at the end, it’s a Ukrainian custom to be buried with your best pair of shoes. However the radiation disfigured them so horribly that the shoes wouldn’t stay on so their loved ones simply held them during the burial

[@neptunusrex5195]

That the Ukrainian people rose to the challenge and went willingly to their deaths to cleanup Chernobyl, that fact alone the world owes it to help Ukraine 🇺🇦

[@CodeeXD]

​@@neptunusrex5195yeah we totally owe Ukraine for cleaning up their fuck upthat could have ruined the planet. Definitely.

[@Alexandra_Indina]

@@neptunusrex5195 it is not really a correct fact. The thing is that people from all over the Soviet Union came to Chernobyl as volonteers. And in fact now almost in every post-soviet city we have some of them still living, as well as memory monuments to them. But ofc we still should help Ukraine.

[@neptunusrex5195]

Well yes they came from all over but Ukrainians were effected by it the most.

[@PPfilmemacher]

@@neptunusrex5195 Also not entirely true with Chernobyl and the entire exclusion Zone being located close to the boarder between Ukraine and Belarus and the wind back then blowing from south to north and carrying especially the smoke and the radioactive particle in it over in to Belarus obviously had a major impact especially with cancer amongst the Belarusian citizens till to this day and both countries are literally evenly effected

[@danesorensen1775]

That last scene of them burying the firefighters in concrete always gets me. The sheer finality of it is haunting.

[@andrewmccormack4295]

yes, those poor women watching their husbands being buried in caskets welded closed under tons of concrete.

[@TheJerbol]

I'm not spiritual but metaphorically it's almost like trapping their souls

[@hebijirik]

About the masks and the probelm with fans in a tunnel: due to all the material ejected from the reactor the ground around the power plant was covered with radioactive dust. When you breathe it in you get not only the usual health issues with breathing dust (which the miners were used to already) but you also add a source of ionizing radiation right into the middle of your torso, near all your organs. When the officer said "not this dust, no fans" this is what he meant. The dust around the powerplant was like order of magnitude worse for your health than regular dust. Which is also why wearing a mask helps a bit. By itstelf it will not save you but it will very significantly decrease the probability of getting cancers and stuff. When you see them always washing stuff with some soapy water (like trucks, streets, protective clothes before people take them off etc.) this is why - to remove the radioactive dust from it.

[@totemictoad4691]

this, also some forms of radiation will be blocked by your skin, if its outside you your safe from it unless its like on your eyes,,, breathe it in and now its a problem (also eating it super bad)

[@sherrysink3177]

I love the directness of the miners. Can you imagine having to dig in 50 C (that's 120 degrees F!!)? They really were heroes.

[@i_love_rescue_animals]

Absolutely loved the head miner. A total, no bullshit kind of guy. I can't imagine those conditions. I've had to "work" in that heat before - but I was a supervisor and I was just walking around and talking with people. I was wearing a lab coat (more heat) and sweating my ass off. I don't know how the people I supervised could deal with it. I told them all the time to drink lots of water and take breaks in the air conditioned control rooms when they needed to. Really, really tough work - but only on cleanup days. The rest of the days, they mostly worked in air con. Thankfully they weren't shovelling ground, but they were exerting themselves to an extent. Those Russian miners saved millions of peoples lives and livelihoods!

[@blackrainbow_a5803]

same the head miner was my favorite

[@lafatte24]

@@i_love_rescue_animals I walked around yosemite in 109 heat before. I was drinking hella water but my lips still ended up drying out and my whole face was salty because of the sweat. I can't even imagine mining in 109 heat with all the dust and lack of ventilation... let alone 122 heat.

[@BloodylocksBathory]

"Now you look like the minister of coal," is rather poetic. The miners are the ones getting dirty and risking their lives even before they were ordered to Chernobyl, while the man in charge of them is in a crisp, clean suit. So many people working at the cost of their health while their bosses sit at a desk and enjoy luxuries, some of which shouldn't even have to be luxuries. The foreman clearly cared for his colleagues more.

[@TrackpadProductions]

It's worth noting, I think - this scene, while very effective and certainly representative of the relationship between worker and boss at the time, isn't really accurate to the real events. That scene never occured in real life. The man in the suit, Mikhail Shchadov, started working in mines from age 15, and was very experienced in the field by this point. To my knowledge he was actually quite respected by other workers in the coal industry.

[@BloodylocksBathory]

@@TrackpadProductions True, it could have afforded to be tweaked a bit and be a little more accurate while still maintaining the mood of the scene.

[@Alte.Kameraden]

"The illusion of strength is our strength."

[@UmbraMilla]

From what Lyudmila’s accounts of Vasily were, this depiction was SANITIZED compared to what she probably saw.

[@andrewmccormack4295]

30:57..My heart breaks for this poor woman losing her husband like this and seeing him buried under tons of concrete,ofcourse not forgetting all the other wives in the same situation,what a terrible thing to have to go through.

[@mohammedashian8094]

And they were married for like 3 years before he died and she was only 23

[@queenigelkotte]

He wasnt killing her, it was more she who was endangering him because their immune system fails. I do wonder if they knew they were dying or if they thought they were going to be fine.

[@dylanbrace5115]

I bet after a few days they knew

[@morgand.3809]

I wish people in the comments would not give you so many spoilers. We're here to see your reactions to the show, after all.

[@neptunusrex5195]

Long comment explaining how radiation works. Scroll to last paragraph for overall summary. 😅 There’s two kinds of radiation exposure, Acute exposure (huge dose over short period of time) and Chronic exposure (lesser dose over a long period of time). Radiation alters DNA of the cells and breaks down tissue, organs, etc. It takes time for that to happen so it’s not like a regular flame, the effects AREN’T immediate. Also you’re only “contaminated” and dangerous while you have the stuff actually on you, but once you get decontamination and bathed and clean clothes, THEN it’s safe for people to touch you, you’ll still have effects from whatever you absorbed up until that point but you’re not dangerous to others anymore. So when Vasily Ignatenko (the firefighter) was in the hospital and his wife was kissing and hugging him holding his hand etc there was no danger because he would have already been decontaminated and bathed and given new clothes by the point so it was actually safe for people to touch him. They didn’t know that about radiation AT THAT TIME YET and so that’s why everyone was freaking out about touching him. For Acute Radiation Sickness depending on your rate of exposure, you’ll see symptoms anywhere within 15 minutes to several hours or even several days. Acute radiation sickness (ARS), the symptoms are very similar to what is depicted in the show, only it wouldn’t show up as quick. Dosage they received, symptoms probably didn’t show up until 30 minutes to several hours later depending on where they were in the facility and where all they went as they tried to fix the situation. When you’re exposed to radiation one of the first things it knocks out is your stomach flora which in turn causes nausea and diarrhea, and so that’s why you saw everybody throwing up. But yeah the show is pretty accurate on what Acute Radiation Sickness looks like and what it does to you, albeit in reality it’s a slower onset of symptoms. The part about iodine the way it works the thyroid gland is sensitive to radiation so when exposed it becomes saturated with it. To prevent this, you take the iodine tablets which floods the thyroid with stable iodine, then the radioactive iodine can’t effect the thyroid because it’s already been saturated with stable iodine, and so the stable iodine wins out. The rest of the radiation your body will just pass the radioactive iodine as it would any other substance you’re exposed to. However because the human body absorbs radiation so fast, iodine tablets only work within the first day or two, after that it doesn’t really do anything. There’s alot of people walking around without thyroids today because did the effects of Chernobyl and the radiation spreading over such a wide area. Chronic Radiation Syndrome, that’s when you see things like cancer, birth defects, lifelong health conditions (such as developing a clotting disorder because you were exposed to radiation, or liver disease because you were exposed to radiation) etc. Because radiation alters the DNA of cells, those mutations can sometimes become encoded, so birth defects will then continue for multiple generations. There’s even second and third generation babies still being born today with birth defects because granddad was a liquidator (you’ll see about the liquidation efforts in the next episode). Other people have heart or liver conditions that run in the family now because dad or granddad worked in the exclusion zone or where in the area that got hit by radiation. To sum up, radiation - it depends on how intense the source of the radiation, how close you were to said source of radiation, and how long you were around it. Those three factors are what determines the effects of what will happen to you. The industry adage “mass in the path” describes how to protect yourself. More stuff (thicker and denser the material the better - ie concrete) the more stuff between you and the radiation, the less your body will absorb. And of course the quicker you get decontaminated the better because as long as the fallout and other material is still on you, you’re still actively absorbing the radiation. So Lon go story short, “Mass in the path” and get to decontamination as quick as possible. Nuclear power is very safe, but when things go wrong radiation can be scary zhit 🙉😬☢️

[@JRRLewis]

How were they supposed to wash off all the radioactive dust and ash the firemen breathed in? I doubt they would have buried them in lead coffins under concrete without testing to verify that they were indeed radioactive from all the radioactive isotopes they breathed in. New clothes would do nothing for internal contamination.

[@flor8567]

I think it's very important to highlight that the bureaucratic and government attitude cannot be seen as a Soviet-only problem. Bureaucracy affected the response to the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and now that Oppenheimer has come out we can draw attention to how the Manhattan Project did irreparable health damage to the Native American population of New Mexico. When it comes to nuclear issues governments love to lie and act a fool with crucial information.

[@DeathKitta]

Yeah, USSR is just another country with greedy selfish people who only think about themselves. There are exceptions and they do all they can so humanity can still stand.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

Exactly. As much as I hate Communism, we ABSOLUTELY have the same problems with political BS

[@JGD714]

@@lucianaromulus1408yeah it's an inherent problem with big government and bureaucracy that is simply more prevalent the bigger the government is, which is what happens with centralist countries (Japan), communist governments, and of course the bigger the nation economically and industrially the more incentive for government to enlarge itself (USA).

[@user-zr5yw2st1e]

​@@lucianaromulus1408why you hate communism?

[@lucianaromulus1408]

@@user-zr5yw2st1e because it's the single most destructive ideology and has deleted the most people on this planet. It is a soulless and shallow modus operandi

[@G1NZOU]

In reality the workmen in the water had to feel their way in the dark, but that wouldn't work for TV media so they're given pump charge flashlights to make it easier for the audience.

[@jamesmarciel5237]

30:53 At the time, because of the belief that the radiation could be transmitted by touch there were believed special precautions used in the burials. As pointed out by other commenters here, that isn’t the case. It is not explicitly explained in the scenes here but in addition to the caskets being encased in concrete, the caskets were either made out of, or lined with lead as well.

[@kentbarnes1955]

There were actually 4 operating RBMK reactors at Chernobyl. Units 1 -3 continued to operate for years even after the accident. You'll learn more about the design differences of RBMK reactors in the final episode (5).

[@angela-thebooknerdess2110]

As of 2021, there are 8 operational RBMK reqctors

[@neptunusrex5195]

There’s an HBO podcast that discusses the history of Chernobyl and production of the series (also available here on KZbin). There is also a nuclear safety engineer whose channel is called “TheAtomicAge” he did a react to Chernobyl as well and he explains the science of each episode and how radiation works in real life and clears up a lot of the Hollywood stuff. Highly recommend! So together, the podcast and the nuclear safety engineer’s react, listening to both of those will clear up and set the record straight as far as what and how it ACTUALLY happened in reality vs the Hollywood version of events.

[@Hmt1756]

Oh, didn’t know about the production video, have to check that! There are also reaction videos from a nuclear physicist called Elina Charatsidou, she is explaining some of the physics as well.

[@TheBestPirateDrake]

Their is a big difference between having radioactive dust on your skin and having them inside of you. This is why they can’t have fans, because it would make them actively breathe the dust and their chances of survival are even lower with that. If they digged depper thy could have also been protected from the heat.

[@sam_c95]

30:24 "What do you do with the bodies? Do you burn them?" No, a common misunderstanding of chemistry but burning wouldn't be a good idea. Combustion is a chemical change, not a nuclear change, so burning can sometimes be a good method of destroying certain chemicals by changing the bonds between different atoms, but radioactive nuclei are always radioactive until they decay, no matter what chemical compound they are a part of. Changing their chemistry doesn't change the nature of the nuclei of the atoms involved. If you burn the bodies it would simply release all the contaminating radioactive material into the atmosphere - remember the smoke from the fire at the plant itself? It would be like that but on a much smaller scale. Even burying is somewhat problematic because the radioactive material can leak into the groundwater. This is why they were fused inside lead coffins, so that the radioactive material was contained in there and couldn't escape. Lead is chosen because it can block the radiation emitted including the gamma rays to some extent, and it doesn't corrode quickly.

[@artistanthony1007]

Made the most sense to fuse them in those coffins and fill over those coffins with concrete.

[@dunbar9finger]

The reason the radiation hospital had the patients in sealed plastic areas and didn't want Ludmylla to touch her husband was NOT because he was a danger to her. It was because SHE was a danger to HIM. Acute Radiation Sickness degrades the patient's immune system so severely that they would die if they catch a cold. They have to be kept in absoltely sterile conditions for quite a while while recovering. Once the hospital has stripped and cleaned the patient fully and there is no dust particles on their body they stop emitting radiation. Its their clothing and the dust that is radioactive threat, not their flesh and bones.

[@buddystewart2020]

omg, the touching thing, it's just what they thought back then. Her husband isn't radioactive. He isn't a ball of nuclear fission firing off gamma rays. His immune system is severely compromised right now though, so she's more harmful to him than he is to her.

[@JRRLewis]

He didn't need to be a ball of nuclear fission to be radioactive though. He inevitably breathed in particles of radioactive dust and ash in his job fighting the fire. The radioactive particles would have continued to emit radiation from within his body.

[@Larsskoldebjer]

Her love for him is maybe the strongest we´ve ever seen in a love relatonship Unbelievable! To give your self up and want to follow with your loved one, no matter what!!!!

[@marianne5055]

The show does take a bit of liberty with Vasily making Lyudmilla sick. At this point he wouldnt be emiting radiation...however she would be a risk to him as he essentially wouldnt have an immune system anymore.

[@darrenc2721]

The thing about exposure to radiation, it can vary greatly in intensity. If those firefighters recieved a massive dose, they could be classed as walking ghosts. For a small period of time, their bodies stay relatively healthy. its usually called Acute Radiation Syndrome. It simply depends on the dose they receive. It can take upto 30 days depending on the type of damage done to the body and where it was absorbed.

[@ToMaX444]

In reality, staying near exposed people is not dangerous on the condition they have been previously properly washed of all the radioactive particles on their skin and clothes. It is not the process of getting irradiated that spreads more radiation, it is the particles that stay on you. Technically, those people can have some radioactive particles inside of their bodies after ingesting or inhaling them but this wouldn't be nearly as many particles as on the outside. The only way of turning regular things radioactive is through neutron activation which is, as the name suggests, caused by neutrons. This is not the case here since neither alpha, beta nor gamma radiation consists of neutrons. EDIT: Why did the they show that being around exposed people is dangerous? Well, either simply for dramatic purposes or maybe to convey the thinking of the people. Other than professionals in the field, people back then might not have known how radiation works and they might as well have thought that people exposed to it were dangerous. Hell, even people today still think that.

[@avostorm8111]

Some knew at the time that they weren't radiated, but a lot really didn't have clue about it. The biggest thing for no touching is due to the immune system of the effected. It's quite similar to burn wards...

[@angela-thebooknerdess2110]

The wife of the firefighter is based on a real story in Voices From Chernobyl and she was pregnant. Things did not end well for the baby.

[@brandonreed09]

​​@@angela-thebooknerdess2110true however it wasn't exposure to her husband that caused the issues. It was the exposure she got from being near Chernobyl.

[@thunderatigervideo]

As others in the comments have noted, the firefighters were not dangerous to people around them. But historically, there was (and is) a lot of misunderstanding about how radiation affects people. Hibakusha were what they called atomic bomb survivors in Japan. Both they and their children faced harsh discrimination their entire lives because people thought they could spread contamination. When they had the Fukushima accident in 2011, a lot of the discrimination happened again. Many evacuated from the area were refused at hotels because people thought they could spread radiation. Regarding fans, masks, and the miners, certain types of radiation (alpha decay) can be blocked by simple things like skin and paper. But it’s not blocked by lung tissue, so if you inhale it, you’re in trouble.

[@flor8567]

There's a video from Vanity Fair that features Dr. Alla Shapiro who worked as a responder to the Chornobyl disaster. She explains how the depiction of victims of radiation is not realistic, mostly because a lot of the effects would take weeks instead of a few days and people were not contagious once their contaminated clothes have been removed and they had been bathed. Btw the three divers at the beginning of the episode lived long lives, the water absorbed most of the radiation and with their gear they were fine.

[@neptunusrex5195]

I’ve seen that video you mention and she admits herself that she didn’t work directly with the firemen or the first groups that were brought in. She even admitted in that same video that she doesn’t know what the cases were like with the firemen as she herself never saw them. Also in the HBO podcast for Chernobyl Craig Mazin explains how the makeup/effects used actual government record medical research photos of actual radiation patients so the claim that the makeup is “unrealistic or is over exaggerated or played up for tv” simply isn’t true. What you saw in the show is pretty close. Maybe not exact but it’s pretty up there as far as accuracy. You’ll find when you start researching Chernobyl there’s a lot of rumor, half-truths, and out right misinformation.

[@roguechevelle]

I always get a little aggravated that people want to get mad at the wife and keep saying but "the baby, the baby". Like would they be that concerned about her if she wasn't pregnant? Is she not making smart decisions possibly, in reality once a person is washed/decontaminated they are no longer dangerous to anyone in fact people are more dangerous to the patient. I mean it's her body, it's her life, it's her offspring it's not yours it's not like your gonna be raising the kid. The real person actually received a ton of hate when this series came out when she already suffered so much in her life.

[@artistanthony1007]

You know you don't have to be rude with the comment, people are just concerned & afraid about the life of the child.

[@bubblesculptor]

I like how each character has their own development arc of being more afraid of the government vs the radiation. Everyone is fearful of punishment, but each begins to understand the danger of the radiation at their own pace and eventually their fear of radiation surpasses fear of the government.

[@aer71367]

Oh my stars!!! Russia is the very definition of Toxic Masculinity!

[@ravenofroses]

while soviet miners did sometimes work naked in extremely bad conditions, they didn't do so at chernobyl. but i totally understand why, hearing that this WAS a custom in some cases, the writers of the show decided to include that scene. (also, the miners slapping the guy's nice suit with coal dust was an invented detail--by all accounts, that dude was on relatively good terms with the miners. but it's a great visual to have the lowly workers leaving coal dust handprints all over the stuffy party member's light-colored suit.)

[@audreylwalker]

This show keeps reminding me of how I wish the U.S. used the metric system and measured temperature in Celsius like the rest of the world… it would just save me so much confusion and time looking up conversions🥴

[@thesenate9455]

right, these 2 would have reacted to knowing how hot 50 celsius really is

[@CodeeXD]

Well it's no our fault everyone else switched over the metric system. Imperial was first which is whywe use it, also it makes more sense imo as there is a pretty big difference in temperature between 20c and 21c

[@jillfromatlanta427]

Not gonna happen. We tried it a few decades ago but it failed miserably.... Back to mph, inches, and Fahrenheit. Deal with it....:-)

[@zammmerjammer]

@@jillfromatlanta427 Except anyone and everyone working in the sciences or any international industry uses metric, so Americans working in those fields have to learn metric. The imperial system is archaic. Get with the times.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

​@@zammmerjammerits not hard to learn both lol

[@The_real_Arovor]

As promised, some facts again, but this time actually a bit gruesome. The people suffering from acute radiation poisoning, according to numerous experts who watched the series, actually looked a lot more horrifying than depicted here. They toned it down for the viewers. The thing about the burrying in concrete is actually done to prevent the corpses from being exhuminated. Most likely to save people in the future to be exposed to possible radiation. Just a precaution. There were 17 RBMK reactors running and a further 9 in construction. Today 8 of them are still running, scheduled for shutdown in 2050. After Chernobyl they have been upgraded, probably because of Legasov. The reactors have actually some quite unique features, aswell as som unique weaknesses. It’s an interesting construction for sure.

[@Short_Round1999]

They were able to pump out the water to prevent an additional explosion. This didn’t stop the meltdown, but now it’s just a matter of keeping the meltdown from reaching the natural ground water cuz it WILL melt through everything if not prevented somehow. That’s where the miners and liquid nitrogen heat-exchanger comes in

[@OlivierTrout]

One thing you must understand is that skin is surprisingly good at stopping radiation (to an extent). I myself has a physics student have worked with radioactive sources I could safely touch and manipulate... but if you were to breathe in or ingest those sources? Inner organs are MUCH more vulnerable to radiation. So when you see stuff about masks, body suits, dust and ventilation you must understand its all about fighting the very real danger of inhalation. What they said was true; those miners have never breathed dust like this one before.

[@loveitftw]

One of the divers Ananenko actually spoke about the series and explained sum things to the BBC. He was on shift work and the other 2 were being ordered in by their managers, and there were no reward at all. He just thought that he would get fired if he didn't do it and wouldn't be able to find another job if he was fired. They knew the place and could get the job done. No real hero moment like they made it out in the show. No one was clapping or whatever after either. As he said: "It was just our work. Who would applaud that?". Kind of interesting to hear the actual workers speak about the accident.

[@user-zr5yw2st1e]

Mothers of Ignatenko and Toptunov

[@sheeps1495]

Legasov is Actor Jared Harris, son of Richard Harris (first Dumbledore in Harry Potter).

[@mindajane]

Being near someone with radiation posioning isn't dangerous for the non-sick person. However the person with radiation poisioning has no immune system so it's danger to them. She'd already been exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation from the explosion it's self. She didn't do any damage to herself by staying with him.

[@lechat8533]

In Fukushima, the Japanese were pumping seawater into the reactors, and the water all got back into the sea. Is anybody talking about the aftermath of the Nuclear Meltdown? Not that I know anything about it, and that fact has been bothering me since it happened in 2011.

[@user-zr5yw2st1e]

It's not communism

[@lechat8533]

@@user-zr5yw2st1e Meaning?

[@G1NZOU]

The masks do do something, essentially the most harmful material is very active and gives off radiation that's very damaging, but can be stopped by skin, however if you breath it in it sits in your lungs firing rays and particles into your internal organs. So you want to avoid breathing in the radioactive dust or consuming contaminated food and drink, as well as washing your clothes or wearing overalls so you have less contact with the material near your body than necessary.

[@G1NZOU]

However the thing about the firemen being dangerously radioactive is mostly an urban legend, there was some concern at the time perhaps that if they'd breathed in so much contaminated smoke their lungs could have radioactive contamination after their body rots down, so they were buried in sealed zinc coffins covered with concrete. But most of the hospital precautions once they're washed and free of contamination is actually for the victim's protection, since the immune system fails they're at risk from pretty much all infections, and their skin and flesh is fragile and will start to fall off. That's why you're not meant to touch them. I believe Lyudmila did a whole lot of extra help with the nurses in the hospital, especially when their digestive systems were starting to break down and it was becoming almost impossible to eat. Her baby's death was probably not due to any radiation from Vasily but a combination of it being really hard for her since she'd had a previous unsuccessful pregnancy, and also stress. The series takes a lot of inspiration from her personal account so some of the stuff portrayed regarding her experiences in Moscow is more about how people experienced the events rather than true 100% scientific accuracy.

[@iKvetch558]

Something the makers of the show changed for entertainment purposes in this episode is the way the coal minister and coal miners interacted. The Deputy Minister of Mining met with the miners, and basically gave them 24 hours to be ready to go to Chernobyl...there was no humorous coal dust on the suit moment. The meeting between the Minster and miners is covered in the History vs Hollywood article I recommended...as is the fact that the miners did not work in the nude.👍

[@neptunusrex5195]

Soviet miners were in fact known to work in the nude when conditions were unfavorable such as during summer months or when there was poor ventilation but at Chernobyl HOWEVER no, they did NOT work in the nude because of the radiation so they simply just put up with it. Their gruff demeanor and lack of social graces is very on point though

[@iKvetch558]

@@neptunusrex5195 Excellent info...I did not know they sometimes worked nude at other times in the 1980s. Thank you 👍

[@minaolenella869]

I doubt the baby would be effected from her being in the hospital. She had already gotten a much much larger dose when the reactor blew up.

[@jean-philippedoyon9904]

I got to say this...at least they are honest with the miners and the protection ! At that point, in crisis mode, it's not time to create more smaller internal crisis...The sad part is, because of how the way and the form the lava took when it got cold, they did all this for nothing. Better safe then sorry !!!

[@Shiftry87]

Yeah that sucks for sure, but with an estimated 40% failure rate and around 50mil ppl at risk not including later generations i dont think any1 would roll the dice in that situation.

[@s1lm4r1l6]

Nuclear Reactors are very complicated. And bring together a wide variety of components. You've got the Nuclear material. Uranium or Plutonium. You've got the type of Nuclear reaction. Thermal or Fast. You've got the Moderators. Graphite, Heavy water, light water. Even molten salt. You've got the Coolant. Water, gas, liquid metal. (And obviously, there's sub-choices within those.) You've got the purpose. Some reactors are designed for propulsion in Nuclear submarines for instance. There's a lot of different ways to build a Nuclear reactor, and the RBMK was a unique design, but it's not difficult to build a Nuclear reactor to a unique design.

[@a.s.raiyan2003-4]

The fact that the Soviet Union and KGB were so adamant so saving their skin that they'd rather let a crucial thing left investigated.

[@wakkadakka9192]

Something that you heard from entertainment tv show you perceive as a fact? cuz in reality you know, none of this happened It's just a tv show with made up script and many overdramatic scenes - don't tell me you one of these who learn history by tv

[@lucianaromulus1408]

Communism dude. But as much as I hate Communism, we often have similar problems here. Political and Egotistical BS

[@lucianaromulus1408]

​@@wakkadakka9192you're an absolute moron if you don't think Communists had more loyalty to the Party than to their actual people. Talk to people that lived it and read some history books

[@user-zr5yw2st1e]

Oh!! Are you know american doctor worked in hospital /6

[@artistanthony1007]

I didn't know of the Latency Period when first seeing this episode but I knew that that good sign was not going to last and something worse was coming, ofc knew radiation tears you apart and your body dies so that's one reason why I expected what is after that period. When you are as ballsy as those miners and used to this dangerous stuff, nothing else matters and you brace death head on.

[@ghostsquirrel8739]

The appearance of the Chernobyl victims towards the end is consistent with real life. You really do end up looking like that and it’s been called one of the most painful deaths a human can have.

[@murphy1011]

I read somewhere that they actually wanted them to look worse, because it does get worse. They decided to hold back for the show though to not make it too focused on gore while still getting the point across. So it could have been even crazier.

[@DeathKitta]

The end always ALWAYS make me cry. It's so horrible. They were a young family, they have so many dreams about their future, and then he dies in agonising death and she is by his side never leaving him to suffer alone, maybe still hoping the nightmare will end. It didn't.

[@piratehunter1]

now you guys understand why he told that pilot he would be begging for that bullet. death by radiation poisoning is one of THE most painful way to die. you can get a light form of it from being in the sun too long. no not a sunburn i mean actual poisoning.

[@LordLOC]

So, they had to turn down the "gore" scenes of the people affected by the radiation, because it's simply horrible....beyond horrible what those people went through before they died. And it's still horrendous on the show. Also, there's actually no way to transfer radiation from one person to another, except when the radioactive material is still on the person, either through their clothes or in their hair etc. They had to uh, fudge some of the stuff for more dramatic reasons and as someone who lived through this era and remembers it well, I'm OK with them fudging the science for the dramatic effect. You'll see later on in another episode I think it is why they did what they did for the series. I don't know if others mentioned this, but the clothing from the firefighters they wound up tossing in a basement area of the hospital, the clothing is still there - and radioactive to this day.

[@nickosmond]

For anyone wondering 30 km is roughly a half hour drive on the highway and 200 km is a 2 Hour Drive on the highway going the speed limit 2600 km is roughly a 26 Hour Drive in countries that use kilometres the speed limit is usually 100 km an hour just in case anyone wondering what the distance was and didn’t want to translate kilometres to miles

[@susanmaggiora4800]

For a quick shorthand conversion, I always go by the rule of a kilometer being around 60% of a mile, so 100 km is around 60 miles & 30 km is roughly 17-18 miles.

[@geneticjen9312]

I don't think 30*4=200

[@nickosmond]

@@geneticjen9312 it doesn’t but a town that’s 30 km away from me takes roughly a half hour to get to driving the highway at the highway speed limit so take that into consideration and before you get an attitude and there’s no other way to get to the town other than over the highway. Plus I grew up using kilometres so I would hope I know how it works. Not trying to be rude as a kid. I didn’t understand it either. I still don’t but that’s just how life is. I spent a year in that town and you quickly learn that making multiple trips a day back-and-forth from one town to another will burn hours of your day.

[@lc8155]

Great reaction guys. Thanks!

[@kinokind293]

I must say, these comments are amazing for their accuracy and eloquence. Most comments are usually opinion, these have been very fact-rich. It says something about the audience for this set of videos.

[@WraithWTF]

On the fans issue: most of the minute radioactive particles were just giving off alpha radiation, which your skin can block (still not great for you to be exposed to it, but it isn't nearly as dangerous as the beta and gamma stuff is). However, once those particles get into your lungs, that radiation is just gonna bounce around in your body and further accelerate your radiation sickness/cancer/anemia (depending on what you get). Stirring up dust with those fans would've made things considerably worse for the miners in the long-term, though working in that sort of heat would suck massively.

[@ZhekUA]

Actually, the most dangerous place on Earth is an Elephant Foot (piece of extremely radioactive lava from reactor core) inside Reactor Block 4 direct interacting with it made you as a firefighters within minutes even with a protection. About reactor won't spoiling, except Dyarlov was the most competent there, and reactor is one of the most powerful of other designs

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

let us take a moment to mind the fact that this production came out a whole year before the invasion of Ukraine took place, where Russian soldiers went on to dig trenches *AT* the fields of Chernobyl. even if you were ignorant of the incident before this came out, and even if you're not a TV series aficionado, and even if the level of misinformation is SO HIGH in your chain of command to the point where you're effectively ignorant to *the one most disastrous event of the 20th century after WW2,* there is no excuse for blatantly ignoring the signs that read "DO! NOT! ENTER! THIS! LOCATION!".

[@isabelsilva62023]

In a totalitarian state truth and fact are what those in power say it is and if you want to die of old age then you refrain from thinking out loud. When you live like that what you know or not is irrelevant, both extremes of the political spectrum do the exact same things.

[@safespacebear]

This episode reminds me of the glib quote "you go to war with the army you have". In this case it's "you respond to disaster with the bureaucracy you have". I'm sure it was frustrating but the entire Soviet system was set up that way and trying to tear it apart in the moment of disaster would probably cause more issues than it would solve.

[@denniskinner]

There is also a series of podcasts, 50 minute episode for each video episode. They explain a lot of decisions for an episode, in fact, you can listen to them in parallel, 1 video episode, 1 podcast issue. Well, if you want to learn more. 'The people already know' remark is interesting, because no, at the time they did a pretty good job to conceal as much as possible. And there were no smartphones, no Internet, only state-controlled TV and newspapers

[@ZakCrimsonleaf1]

While Chernobyl is a fantastic series, my largest issue with it is their implication that the victims of Advanced Radiation Sickness, like Vasily Ignatenko and the other firemen, were in danger of irradiating others. There are certain types of contamination the can make the human body radioactive, but not in amounts large enough to be dangerous, certainly not in relatively short amounts of time, at least to my understanding. The vast majority of whatever radiation Lyudmilla absorbed would have been the immediate fallout from the blast itself when she was stuck in Pripyat with all the other residents. Now, this was not known to Soviet medical science at the time, so the warnings the hospital staff gives her are historically accurate, just not scientifically valid to a modern understanding.

[@iceman7757]

🤓

[@DoNkEy_LoVE]

The crazy part is, you're actually hit it on. The government wanting to hold back information is partly to blame for an actuality. There are 2 blame for it because if they had acknowledged that the button was a design flaw, then this would have never happened.

[@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames]

Like I said in my comment on your reaction to the first episode, it takes a very specific, very unlikely sequence of events to allow this model of reactor to explode. The chances are smaller than your odds of being hit by a random meteor falling from space when you step outside. But on that day, in that place, all the circumstances were right. And the last step in that unlikely process is "Hit the AZ5 button." Normally, that button shuts the reactor down. But this time, it was at the end of the very rare process, which means that the button turned into a detonator.

[@jamesmarciel5237]

Thank you for allowing your need to sound as an expert possibly spoil this for them considering the last episode. How about waiting for a show to explain something at it’s own pace. You’d probably explain to some watching “Citizen Kane” for the first time, who “Rosebud” was at the start of the movie.

[@d.-_-.b]

The bit showing the recruitment of 750,000 people for the liquidation work was poorly done as so many people think it's something else, like the guys here thinking they were evacuees.

[@angela-thebooknerdess2110]

Just to say. There are 8 operational RBMK reactors in the former soviet union still active.

[@whitenoisereacts]

I don’t think people should be afraid of nuclear power. I think clearly the issue here was the government

[@angela-thebooknerdess2110]

@whitenoisereacts absolutely. I think the big problem is literally the design flaw of RBMK's of the design utilised in Chernobyl Western reactors took a different design path which gave rise to safer results.(that isn't to say there were issues, but there were failsafes and ways of ensuring the radiation released was really low and minimal.The worst part of the USSR's Communist ideology (different to the economic philosophy), meant that no one knew anything, there was a lot of propaganda and party lines. The products of which leads to the problems found in chernobyl. There are a couple of really really good books about chernobyl. One is Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham - this tells the story starting from construction (there were issues from the start) and the other book is Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, which tells you the stories from people in Pripyat and those who were involved in the aftermath. They are fascinating reads.

[@robertoprestigiacomo253]

2:41 - If I remember well, the real-life guys (maybe all, maybe some of them) survived and died of old age with no health problems despite being exposed to high radiation. 4:01 - At this point, he's not a risk to her. He's been washed and has clean clothes so it's fine. The contageousness of people who have been exposed to radiation was a belief they had back then (not among scientists), but it's not a thing. Isolation served to protect the people exposed rather than the visitors. 12:17 - This scene is also unlikely because the minister of coal at the time was a mining engineer who was respected in the field. 19:44 - That's not how it looks like btw (and I already know this will trigger people, but it's true, it was even admitted by the director of make up). And the baby wouldn't be in danger in real life since it was conceived before the father got exposed. 25:32 - Now, in the case of the animals the situation is different because they can be part of the food chain so they can cause problems.

[@nobodyepicz7538]

''We're still wearing the fkn hats'' xD

[@cynderbueno]

Just wanted to pitch in, the radiation does not travel from person to person, flesh absorbs most of the radiation from the initial contact and does not reflect a significant amount. In regards to the “no visitors” rule, and the no touching, it is because the firefighters have experienced an insane amount of radiation that is ripping their immune system apart, cell by cell, so any contact with people who are not decontaminated and sanitized can significantly increase the risk of any complications, granted they survive long enough to die from complications and not from the radiation sickness itself. Think of the extreme immune system diseases. Edit: additional info regarding radiation. The way body absorbs radiation is different based on the cell multiplication and renewal speed. So organs like skin, thyroid and other internal organs, that have the highest cell renewal rate, are affected the most, that includes the reproductive system. Idione pills, as you guys have mentioned in the last episode, will only prevent cancer (specifically thyroid cancer) and does not have much other impact over the overall radiation sickness effect

[@DavidMacDowellBlue]

01:41 The radiation did kill the lights, and they were not able to turn them back on. They did their job is the dark. 03:47 Ludmilla did not in fact touch her husband. Nor would it have mattered much if she did. Living tissue does not really "retain" much radioactivity. But he might have had particles on his skin and hair. These two were newlyweds btw. 13:07 She actually had a very nice view. One of many little dramatic liberties (there are a lot of those in Episode Five) to make a more powerful story, without really changing any of the core truths of this story. 18:22 Here's the thing -- not all of them died. Several workers at the plant are still alive today. The doctors did all they could to try and help, and that is how they learned what worked best. They are thinking of more than just these patients, but the next ones, and the ones after that. Now, if the patients ASKED for death...maybe. 30:37 Bury them in lead, then seal the lead coffins in concrete.

[@LogicalNiko]

The area of the contaminated zone will be generally habitable around the year 4500 AD (about 2000-3000 years). That will be the point where growing crops, drinking the groundwater, etc will not cause substantially high rates of birth defects and cancers. And unfortunately with the war in the Ukraine we may have made the situation heavily worse (we won’t know till after it’s back in the hands of scientists). The building itself will be contaminated, a high risk, and uninhabitable for about 20,000 years (which is a longer period than human civilization has existed thus far). The new confinement building is designed to keep it contained for about another 100-150 years. But pretty much for a thousand generations people will need to keep building new structures on top of that area to keep humanity safe. In the end that accident will end up costing the world quadrillions of dollars over its lifetime.

[@Shiftry87]

They mentioned that building they needed to build to cover the plant and u would think its very dangerous to be inside there but infact ppl work inside that building on a daily basis today without any special protection gear. They ofc carry radiation detectors and if it measures that u have gotten exposed to a pre determind amount u just cant go back in again untill how many days they have desided. Not to long ago i saw a yt crew got access inside and film how it looked inside. They did mention 1 funny thing and for security it make sense. If u touch the wrong thing or happen to drop anything on the floor in there it stays in there and your not allowed to bring it back out even if the object goes through decontamination.

[@aidarosullivan5269]

It's not because of altruism they're keeping them alive, but for scientific purposes, because such severily irradiated people provide invaluable data.

[@cyruslupercal9493]

Miner chief cuts trough bs, but he also doesn't understand the nuance of the situation. Legasov doesn't technicly lie to them, he just seems like he does. As for the dust, the fans would put radioactive dust from outside into the air of the tunnel. The miners would not be capable of working in a day or two. so instead of 400 they'd probably need to bring in that many every few days if fans were in use.

[@alfredalbertalexandrafrederick]

It was hard seeing the pregnant lady keeps trying to get closer to her dying husband, losing their only baby through the process.

[@brandonreed09]

Except that wasn't actually dangerous fir her. It's just bs they made up for the show. It was actually more dangerous for the husband because his immune system was destroyed.

[@danzansandeev6033]

11:00 lil bit of “creative liberty” they made, real minister of coal, Mikhail Shchadov, was a miner himself. He would never be treated the way these miners treated show version cause he was one of them: worker who rose in ranks due to his ability

[@graverob1910]

“Now you look like the Minister of Coal.”

[@graverob1910]

Also: love that the coal miners foreman pockets the pack of cigarettes.

[@cherizar1854]

I understand the frustration of every viewer watching the episode and seeing the wife hugging and touching the firefighter after being told not to, but I think that THAT storyline highlights a bigger issue: Russia was so obsessed with not looking "weak" in front of the rest of the world that they delayed telling the general population what had actually happened and the danger they were all in, when that's the first thing the government should have done to prevent further casualties. Neither wife nor firefighter knew that he had absorbed that ammount of radiation and that by touching her, she and her baby were being exposed in such a way. She thought they were just burns. The government could have prevented further tragedies from occurring after the fact, but their decision to stay silent for the sake of appearance cost many their lives and health.

[@tylerhackner9731]

Masterful yet harrowing

[@neptunusrex5195]

Reality is often scarier than fiction 😬

[@GrouchyOldBear7]

Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it.

[@blissfull_ignorance8454]

The whole Soviet system was based on an utopian idea, not in reality. The more the system drifted from the practical reality, like what really was going on in people's lives, economical stagnation etc, the more the system kept clinging on its delusional, false sense of self-image. The officials could not face the unpleasant, obvious truth, which was that the whole system was failing and rotten to its core. Everybody saw and knew it, but none could not utter that out loud. There could not have been any doubts the superiority of Soviet system over the corrupt and evil capitalism in the West.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

It was delusional from the get go lol these type of Systems will always be and always have been Totalitarian. Only the lowest educated actually believed Utopia was possible

[@MrDeadstu]

As an aside, when people tell you the government is bad, and blah blah. Tell them what authoritarianism is really like, even the head of the KGB had watchers to make sure he followed the State!

[@elincarlsson6388]

Something the show didn't mention, is something that was known since the fallout after Hiroshima etc, was how the medical staff could not give morphine to ease pain, because they could not use needles (that go directly into the veins) on patients as their veins would break and bleed and never stop bleeding no matter how hard they tried to hold pressure etc, so they bleed out most likely, just from a tiny little needle. Also, I imagine that swallowing painmeds would make them vomit instantly and be pointless as well.

[@efricha]

The dust they are avoiding has radioactive contaminants in it. Alphas and betas can be stopped with a sheet of paper, but inhaling them is fatal.

[@anakamarvelous]

There’s no “both sides to it” the secrecy and lies and bs need to be fought

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

THE FIRE FIGHTER ACTOR AND MAN WHO TELLS STORY AT BEGINNING AND END...ARE IN A GREAT SERIES, BASED ON TRUE STORY, "THE TERROR" OF FRANKLIN EXPEDITION TO FIND NORTHWEST PASSAGE NEAR NORTH POLE😍👍👍👍👍👍

[@robhax]

Sad thing is... I hesitate to believe it would be totally different in the US. Maybe some stuff, but there would be a lot of misinformation and governmental denial

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

COAL MINERS ARE TOUGHEST LABORERS EVER!!!! My grandpa worked on coal mine at 14!!!! Steel mill at 18, built skyscrapers after that for over 30 years!!👍👍 One hard ass, son of a bitch!!!!👍👍🔥🔥😍

[@lucasrokitowski8707]

Actually you can sightsee the Chernobyl reactor and its surroundings (well, not now for obvious reasons, but generally speaking). You just have to do this with the guide who knows exactly what areas are relatively safe for a short period of time.

[@gonzo6489]

Fun Fact: The bearded miner that says, "Now you look like the Minister of Coal" at 12:17 is played by the actor that played Lord Commander Mormont on Game of Thrones

[@hideflen6078]

It gets way worse before it gets better… but all does get explained, in the timeline of the story and with some “epilogue” bits…

[@gumby3418]

Radiation is really 'simple' in a way. And noone who watches Chernobyl still do not bother to get it. There are 'three types' of 'ionising radiation' (technically there can be more, but in this case 3 will suffice). Any one of those can be radiated from one of the unstable elements/isotopes that are used in the nuclear reactor or produced during the fission (so called by-products) 1. Gamma rays. Those are radiated by some of the unstable elements/isotopes. The biggest source in this case would be the reactor core. The surrounding area is NOT the source of a huge amount of gamma rays. The worst bit about gamma radiation is - almost nothing can stop it. Anything in the way will partially absorb them, lead is best to an extent, but only to an extent. The good part is - it is essentially photons (light). So their amount falls off with as a distance to the 4th power in ADDITION to said absorbtion by the surroundings. So 12m depth compared to 6m would provide a lot more protection. Being above ground does not matter as well as while they are above ground, gamma sources are kilometers away. Gamma rays do shred DNA and ionise molecules in cells, but once you're away from the source, there is no lasting damage AT ALL. Immediate damage comes from 'ionisation' which is essentially tinkering with electron count of molecules, making them electrically charged. Our bodies are governed by lots of chemical processes and altering the (mostly water) chemicals in our cells means destroying the balance of those processes. This causes cells to die. The biggest threat is of course is that high intensity gamma radiation penetrates deep, through the entire body, so the damage will be universal. The damage will also manifest significantly more during cell's division attempts, so the 'most dividing cells' are the ones that get damaged more. And another factor is - the more water the cells of said type have, the bigger the hit. For example bones are actually .. well, they don't care about gamma radiation pretty much. 2. Beta particles. These are essentially positrons. They are stopped even with our skin. When they hit something, they also produce gamma rays (or may be even x-rays, not sure, either way it's a question of naming, the damage they do is similar) but they are not as energetic as the core of the reactor produces, so they deal a lot less damage. Basically gamma rays take a lot of 'hits' to stop, and for gamma rays produced as a result of annihilation of the electron-positron pair it's a lot less 'hits' to stop the cascade of effects. The reason is simple. If one remembers physics courses, electrons weigh a lot less than neutrons or protons (this is what happens inside the fissioning nuclear reactor) Positron/electron pair annihilation (e=mc^2) produces significantly less energy. It's almost universally accepted that the only danger with beta particles (apart from increasing chances of .. uhm .. skin cancer) is ingesting them. They can be stopped with a thin sheet of.. pretty much anything (skin included, although stopping it with skin can cause skin cancer). 3. Alpha particles. Those are essentially helium atoms with electrons stripped off. The good part is - it makes them 'ions' and makes them heavy. Bad part is - they still fly out of atoms at high speeds so if they reach human tissue, they wreak significant havoc. It is considered way more dangerous to ingest alpha-particle emitter than a beta-particle emitter (10-20 times or something). But the good part is - the particles themselves are stopped even by air. 5-10cm as far as i recall and that's it. NO alphas reach you. So again, physical contact only causes any issue. And anyone who ingested them will not emit them back. Precautions are there to avoid ANY transfer and spread of radioactive material as it is not that easy to detect. The 'bullets' analogy is sort of okay, but in a way terrible as well. Neutrons are only 'bullets' in the nuclear reactor. Because of the sheer amount that are being produced in it. Basically, 1 neutron that hits Uranium atom produces 3 neutrons that fly away, technically ad infinitum but, because those neutrons are flying really fast, they don't hit another Uranium atom, but hit the ones that are surrounding the fuel, hence 'moderation' (slowing down) of neutron flux. When uranium is not fissioning, there are no neutrons flying out and even if they do, they don't do much except travel a bit and turn other elements into potentially unstable isotopes. In biology, chemically equivalent elements (same amount of electrons for example) and unstable isotopes of the normal elements that the body uses, are the biggest threats. For example, ingesting Uranium is not advised, but actually not that much scary. Its halflife is enormous and it does not accumulate much in the human body causing lasting damage. Compounds of Uranium can hurt but because of chemical effects (acids for example) and not because of its radioactivity. The problem is, fissioning reactor produces lots of different stuff. Mother nature just gives 'probabilities' of what will shoot off from the Uranium atom when it fissions. And the biggest problem in case of Chernobyl are an Iodine isotope, a Strontium isotope and a Caesium isotope. All three because they can be biologically significant. In case of Iodine it is actually USED by our bodies, the rest 'mimic' other elements that are used in by our bodies (same amount of electrons make chemical reactions work the same way, there are differences of course, but no matter) - Iodine accumulates in the thyroid gland that actually uses Iodine. Hence Iodine tablets to saturate the gland. The halflife of iodine is very short (several days). So if produced by an explosion any presences of it will 'fizzle out' in a few weeks. If it was ingested during that time and accumulated in the gland, it will cause a lot of damage. And the damage will stay even though the Iodine will fizzle out in human bodies as well in the same amount of time. - Strontium acts sort-of like Calcium, so it's quite a scary thing as it accumulates in bones, but thankfully not that much were released by the explosion at both Chernobyl and Fukushima. The worst part is - it is still in the soil in case of Chernobyl or in water in case of Fukushima, so any food produced with this contamination will have some calcium 'replaced' by strontium. Which will enter a human's system and accumulate in bones, etc, etc. Can be remedied similar to Caesium (see below). - Caesium acts as Potassium (K). It is less damaging but more abundant after the disaster. The best part is - it is 'easier' to avoid (using certain fertilisers pushes out alternatives to Potassium in plants, similar to Iodine in the Thyroid gland) and it's excreted rather fast. Takes a year or so, but I believe with medication biological halflife is in an order of a month, and the tech is simple - basically just fill the body with chemical non-radioactive equivalents so it starts getting rid of it by cycling through existing storage, which works unlike Iodine, because Thyroid when it accumulates enough Iodine, simply stops accumulating more. Potassium still gets absorbed so in case of Strontium, Potassium-usage can be 'oversaturated' to push out (dilute rather) Strontium. Almost all the other isotopes do not accumulate in the human body, and unless ingested, are easily removed from the skin (thorough washing + removal of clothes). Technically, some exotic radio-nucleides and Caesium (this is a gamma ray source) isotopes the firefighters could have ingested may have made them slightly radioactive, but nowhere near compared to really being on location of the plant. So it is (almost) safe to touch them for the wife. That is if we forget her being pregnant. Damage to cells with gamma radiation in fetal state when basically, just a couple of cells are 'future brain', is a russian roulette. If it hits - 'half the brain' (or any other organ) gets annihilited. But still, being on location in Chernobyl would hurt more. However, the firefighter's bone marrow is up to no good. So getting *any* more germs is a risk for them. They need to be in a sterile clean room and stay away from people, put on enormous amounts of antibiotics, antimycotics, immune system stimulants and all the other stuff - the list is huge. The fact that the firefighters are damaged beyong repair and the fact that they are not (or very slightly) radioactive is why she is sort of allowed to stay. Bodies are buried in the concrete however, to prevent of RELEASE (through natural decay using 'bateria') of ingested elements outside. And the last bit. Halflife. (Both radiological and biological when one talks about any medication). It's a value that says how long it will take half of ANY amount of atoms of said element to 'decay' (or get out of our system in case of medication). Point is, it's all statistical. If you ingested an aspirine a couple of years ago, chances (slim ones) are, one of the aspirine atoms is still somewhere in your body even if its biological halflife is, say 12 hours. Same can be said about radioactive elements. Every 'second' there is a chance it will decay or not. And a chance to 'decay' becomes 50% at this 'halflife' value. So if you had ingested 1024 atoms of an element that has a 1 day halflife, in 1 day you'll have (on average, it is random for each one) 512 of them left, in another day - 256 left, another day - 128, next day - 64, then 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, and after that one can think that every day for that 1 that is left you'll have a 50% chance that it decays, and a 50% chance it does not. So it may still be in you in 100 days, it's just an extremely low probability. 0.5 to the power of 100 essentially.

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

The wounds that were shown was dialed down for the show. Seen the actual images unfortunately for school. Do yourself a favor, Don't look it up, some things cannot be unseen, this is onemof those.

[@TheBestPirateDrake]

The thing about the show is that while it is not scientifically accurate, it is accurate to what was believed was true at the time about nuclear. The chances of a thermal explosion were slime but not impossible. Touching someone who has been irradiated is not as dangerous as the show displays, you don’t actually receive a lot of radiation from contact, you do get a small dose but not enough to kill you. It can have impact on the baby however as it is smaller and needs less radiation to make damage to it. The plastic sheet is not to protect the doctors from radiation but to protect the patients from disease as the patient’s immune system doesn’t work anymore. So the wife caused his death by touching him. This is roughly what I have been learning about it. This not garante to be exact so feel free to correct me in anyway.

[@CharlesVanNoland]

The people who were exposed to the raw full brunt of radiation aren't "sick". You're sick when you get a dose that doesn't affect you until a day or two later, because you can survive that (albeit with cancer down the road afterward). When you get enough radiation that you're dead within a week, you're not sick, you're evaporating back from whence you came somewhere beyond the stars. "Sick" implies a chance of recovery. There is zero chance of recovering from all of your cells being destroyed. You're a spirit that hasn't figured out its vessel is done.

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

Soviet Union falling started here!!!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@maxdon2001]

Great reaction!

[@snorelax9851]

If I remember correctly the men that volunteered to open the valves to empty the water tanks managed to live long lives. I think one of them managed to live till 63. Feel free to fact check me below.

[@neptunusrex5195]

They cover what happened to everybody in an epilogue at the end of episode 5. So…🤫🤫🤫 no spoilers 🙉😅

[@vizuz]

@@neptunusrex5195 That's correct. But not everything in that epilogue is correct. Like what happened to the people on the "bridge of death". The show got that wrong as well.

[@neptunusrex5195]

Yeah the series is good at making you feel the emotions surrounding the events but yeah, there’s A LOT of half-truths, caveats, and stuff that needs better explanation. But it’s good to take in emotionally but to also take the technical stuff and accuracy with a grain of salt. It’s a dramatization not a documentary.

[@geneticjen9312]

Can you please not spoil upcoming episodes? I'd like to see their genuine reactions

[@artistanthony1007]

​@@geneticjen9312It's not a spoiler if he mentions the original liquidators from irl.

[@mountainbikemayhem1833]

The final episode explains why and how…

[@Fatalbeast22]

So you can go to kyiv, the city where the chernobyle reactir was, and in alot of it the radiation is only double the universal background radiation (basically the normal amount of radiation present around you rn) so its still not healthy to say, live there, but its ok to be there for extended periods, now there are certain objects and places within kyiv, especially parts of chernobyle itself, that are still higly radioactive, but thats all documented. Radiation falls off immensely aftwr a certain distance, so an object could be highly radioacte and kill you from only being next to it for an hour or 2, but if you mov3 say, 60 feet away, it wont effect you much